


Stalagmite Bones

by Ended



Series: Skeleton Cancer [1]
Category: Echotale - Fandom, Fellswap - Fandom, Horrortale - Fandom, Underfell - Fandom, Underlust - Fandom, Undertale, underswap
Genre: Alternate Timelines, Alternate Universes, Body Horror, Consistent Updates? Haha No, F/M, Papyrus and Blue just want everyone to be happy, Reader Has A Name, Reader Is A Skeleton, Reader has a type of mostly non-lethal Cancer, Reader is basically an OC, Reader is from sucky Timeline, Souls, harem au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-13
Updated: 2020-06-08
Packaged: 2021-02-23 04:14:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 11,975
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23638780
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ended/pseuds/Ended
Summary: Sans has had weird things happen around him since he was created by Gaster. First, Gaster fell into the core, then the King ordered that all humans be killed and their souls used to break the barrier after his kids died. Then the resets started, and one of the time-jumpers turned out to be a soulless flower, while the other was a sweet 10 year old with a severe case of possession for half the time in the underground.Now that he’s on the surface, of course Lady Luck just has to backhand him for having a pretty good life. Several sets of alternate versions of himself are dragged from their own dimension and dropped face first into his. Not that big of a problem in the long run, since everyone finds a way to get along within a few years.Everything is thrown into upheaval once more when a female skeleton appears in the basement, and while half of them are trying to Kill the poor thing, the other half try to dismantle the walls she built in an attempt to protect herself from getting hurt again.
Relationships: Papyrus (Fellswap)/Reader, Papyrus (Horrortale)/Reader, Papyrus (Underlust)/Reader, Papyrus (Underswap)/Reader, Papyrus (Undertale)/Reader, Papyrus (underfell)/reader, Sans (Undertale)/Reader, Sans(Echotale)/Reader, Sans(Fellswap)/Reader, Sans(Horrortale)/Reader, Sans(Underfell)/Reader, Sans(Underlust)/Reader, Sans(Underswap)/Reader
Series: Skeleton Cancer [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1724269
Comments: 195
Kudos: 344





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> I came up with an idea, and wanted to post it before I forgot about it. Also, I love comments. They help me to see what I’m doing right, and what I can help to clear up for all you readers. I also just enjoy interacting with all of you.  
> Any-who, enjoy!

You know those days when you wake up and can immediately feel that shit is going to hit the fan? Sans was having one of those. He’d woken to the sound of his younger brother Papyrus banging on his door, yelling to the heavens that “YOU NEED TO GET UP AND START THE DAY! JUST BECAUSE ITS THE WEEKEND, DOES NOT MEAN YOU GET TO SLACK OFF”. Sans was about ready to yell back at him to tell him where he could shove that idea, but he didn’t. He understood that Papyrus was just trying to help, and he couldn’t bring himself to be angry at the kid he’d raised from a babybones over something so small.

And besides, he knew he got cranky some mornings after nightmare induced insomnia, and knew better then to snap at someone when it wasn’t needed. After a few minutes, he’d gathered up enough energy to stand and change the outfit he’d been wearing for a while now. He knew he was dirty and probably smelled like food grease from Grillby’s, but he couldn’t bring himself to care much about it on this craptacular morning. His bones protested any movement. Whether from the hours spent bent over the machine in the basement or the fact that he slept terribly was anybody’s guess.

He gathered enough magic to teleport to the kitchen for breakfast, but Papyrus seemed to have moved his seat a little since last night, so he hit the chair at an odd angle and sent it tumbling backwards; dragging him with it to the floor. The sound of skull-on-tile attracted Papyrus, who spun around from his cooking to check on his 1 hp brother.

Sans smiled up at his baby bro from his position on the floor, too stunned to attempt sitting up yet. Papyrus was always so caring, even if Sans’ status as older brother ment he should be caring for Papyrus instead.

“ARE YOU ALRIGHT, BROTHER?!” Papyrus asked as he knelt by his side.

“ ‘m fine bro.” He was able to mumble out in response, “just attacking the chair. it looked like it needed to be taught a lesson.”

“BACKWARDS?”

“i am skilled.”

Papyrus stomped his foot, “SANS! YOU AND I BOTH KNOW THAT YOUR TOO LAZY TO ATTACK ANYTHING!”

_ ‘If only you knew, bro.’ _ Sans thought, but his response was nonchalant.

“your right bro. guess i just ‘ported weird.”

“WELL, BROTHER, MAYBE YOU WOULDN'T HAVE FALLEN IF YOU WALKED INSTEAD OF TELEPORTED EVERYWHERE!”

“ok bro.” Sans shrugged as Papyrus grabbed the back of his chair and hauled him back into position.

“I’M GOING TO UNDYNE’S FOR TRAINING TODAY. I KNOW ITS YOUR DAY OFF, SO I MADE YOU LUNCH! DONT SPEND YOUR DAY SLEEPING, AND PLEASE DONT GET INTOXICATED AT GRILLBY’S AGAIN.”

“ok.”

“AND PICK UP YOUR SOCK.”

“ok.”

“AND CLEAN YOUR ROOM.”

“ok.”

Papyrus gave an exasperated sigh and served Sans his breakfast spaghetti before stomping his way up to his room to get ready. Not that he wasn’t already ready, the first thing he did every morning was don his “battle body”, brush his teeth and take a shower, but he liked to spend a good 10 minutes after making breakfast doing “warrior poses” like Undyne had taught him. It was just yoga, but Papyrus said it helped hone his magic better, so Sans didn’t bother correcting him.

Sans picked up his fork and looked at the monstrosity that was his brother’s cooking. It was somehow overcooked and undercooked at the same time, and the sauce had crispy bits from where it had burnt to the pan. He ate it anyway, downing it as fast as he could so the parts of his magic that allowed him a sense of taste couldn’t activate quickly enough to catch anything more than a Smokey-tomato aftertaste, which wasn’t half bad.

Oftentimes, Sans would just throw away the ruined food, but last night’s horrors made him appreciate the fact that his brother cared for him as much as he did, and this was his way of saying thanks.

It had been three years since the last reset, two years since monsters had been granted the same rights as humans, and 5 months since the uproar of monster haters had died down to only a few small attacks each month instead of every week. If Sans weren't so mentally broken from all the times he’d been on the surface only to wake up back in the underground, he might have actually believed Frisk by now when they said they wouldn’t reset anymore.

He put his plate in the sink, said farewell to his brother as he came down to eat a portion of breakfast spaghetti, and teleported to the basement, much to his brother’s chagrin if the yelling was anything to go by. He plopped down in the office chair in front of the old computer and set to work. Getting his the old machine up and running in the past had been a bust, but now that he was on the surface and had nothing better to do, tinkering with the old hunk of junk had become a sort of hobby. Currently, he was sure he’d gotten all the parts back together, and now he just needed to unscramble some of the complicated pieces of code.

It had been a smaller version of the invention that caused his father to simply disappear from reality via falling into the Core. It was made to be a teleporter, and the larger one had given Sans his shortcut ability when it malfunctioned. Now, Sans was hoping that he could use it to figure out where his father was and bring him back. It would be nice to see the kind, eccentric scientist again.

Sans read over the code on the screen. Once, twice, a third time… everything looked correct. He checked his calculations, then read it again. He inhaled deeply, taking in the surface magic that human souls produced. This was it. He put in the final string of code, hit enter, and the world exploded.

~

Two years later, things had finally settled down. The skeletons who’d been pulled from their dimensions had gotten mostly used to each other, and only the ones from the Fell and Swapfell timelines really fought anymore. That was to be expected though, when the more egotistical brothers had different ways of doing, well, everything.

Sans had also moved everyone out to a large house in the woods at the base of Mount Ebott, so the large space and many rooms helped to decrease the broken furniture and yell induced skull-aches as well.

So, if anyone asked Sans, he’d tell them that life was going pretty well. So of course, because life just really hates things to be too nice for too long, something had to shatter the relative peace the alters had spent years precariously building with each other. 

It started at breakfast. Edge had taken the liberty to make it that morning. Thank god he didn’t put glass in his meals anymore, but lasagna pancakes weren’t exactly something you wanted to taste as you forced it down. Everyone was almost done eating when the sound of something starting up in the basement permeated the idle chatter.

“wasat?” Red asked tiredly, meeting Sans’ eyelights across the table. Sans shrugged, unable to think of something that he could have left on last night by mistake.

“WHATEVER IT IS, TURN IT OFF UNTIL AFTER I LEAVE.” Grouched Black, “I DESERVE A QUIET, STRESS FREE MORNING AFTER LAST NIGHT.”

“ok, be back in a moment.” Sans replied, teleporting to the metal door that led to the lab, just missing the flash of light that had lit up the room.

He flicked on the light and started down the steps, freezing for a moment when he noticed the figure curled up on the floor in a grey-blue sweatshirt not unlike his own. He took a moment to process this, then immediately started towards them, wanting to make sure they were alright.

Sans was sort of expecting it when they sat up and tried to back as far away from him as possible. What he wasn’t expecting was the Blaster and bone attacks sent his way.

“shit!” He shouted, teleporting back upstairs seconds before the blaster could hit him.

The sound of the attack caught the attention of everyone in the kitchen, so when everyone scrambled into view, Sans couldn’t do much to stop the edgier alters from pushing past him and attacking the frightened stranger in their basement.

Hoh boy….


	2. How did I get here?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You wake in the basement. Not the most unusual place you’ve slept, but there are other SKELETONS. That’s a little weird, since you thought you were the only one left. Suddenly four of them are fighting you, and you really wish you hadn’t been forcefully removed from your old life. But then again, you don’t need to hide for your life anymore, so that’s a thing.

The first thing that you notice when you come to is the ringing in your head. It’s a high pitched, painful sound that resonates in your skull and makes it hard to think. It goes away soon enough though, and that’s when you notice that the left side of your face stings. You turn your head so it’s no longer pressing that side of your face to the cool surface you're laying on, and lay down on the right side of your face. You roll from your front onto your right side and curl up, pulling the fluffy hood over your head as the sound of a door opening and a light switch flicking on brings back a bit of the painful ringing sound from before.

You try to open your eyes, but it’s bright, so it takes a few moments to adjust. When you do, the thing that catches your attention the most is a pair of fuzzy pink slippers approaching. There’s only one problem with this scenario so far.

You’ve lived alone for 9 years.

You jerk into a sitting position and scramble backwards. Too disoriented to make any logical decisions aside from summoning a blaster and several bone attacks. The large dragon skull hovering over you with a crown of blade-like horns opens it’s gargantuan maw. A ball of pure magic starts to gather at the back of it’s jaws with a sound similar to some sort of laser gun in a sci-fi movie.

“shit!” The stranger shouts before the beam of the blaster overpowers all other noises.

The bones follow the attack, but the stranger is no longer there. You scan the room quickly for any sign of the intruder and find that you're in a basement. You're not even in your home. Unsure of how you got to wherever you are, but suspecting a kidnapping, you start looking for an exit. Other than the door leading from the basement, there is no way to leave. Multiple footsteps coming from outside the heavy metal door tell you there isn’t much time, so you summon 3 more blasters that are a little bigger than your head. A wall of bones spring up, blocking anyone from coming down the stairs. A shout of alarm rings out from the doorway as the metal door bursts open. 2 skeletons dressed to the 9s in spiked armor and edgy clothing barrel into the space, shooting a few attacks at the wall of bones to break them. Two more equally edgy skeletons follow behind quickly. Your blasters effectively take down the two waves of bone attacks sent your way. The whooshing sound of teleportation warns you enough to give you the second you need to sit down hard. You roll back into a pair of long, thin legs, effectively bowling over one of two edgy counterparts that came down after the first two.

“DON’T LET IT ESCAPE, YOU IMBECILES!” Shouts the shorter one with scars over one eye socket as he summons a bone attack and swings it down on your skull. 

You bring up your right hand and catch it, sending a blast of your own magic up the weapon and shattering it. He stumbles a little, having put most of his weight into the attack and is forced to take a knee. You scramble quickly to your feet and make a mad dash for a more open part of the basement, which happens to be by the stairs. You put your back as close to a corner as possible with no room to teleport behind you, using the boxes full of electrical components in front of you as a sort of barrier in between you and your attackers.

“ALL OF YOU, STOP!” screamed a new voice from the top of the stairs, but it was ignored as if no one had said anything in the first place.

A sudden heaviness settled on your soul, and suddenly, you were being flung across the room. You summon a bone into each hand and use them to ease the impact, only slightly jarred by the blow. You get a moment to turn and look at the shorter skeleton with a gold fang, red sweat starting to form as he moves his outstretched hand to slam you into the floor.

Unprepared, the concrete floor knocks you down a few hp, but you don’t have time to think about it for long because a new skeleton is suddenly blocking you from the others.

“THAT'S QUITE ENOUGH! PUT THEM DOWN, RED.”

You feel “Red” waver in his grip, but he doesn’t release you. A hand on your shoulder makes you try to jerk away, startled by the sudden contact as you turn your head to a small skeleton dressed in light blue. He smiles sheepishly.

“Sorry, New Skeleton.” he stage whispers as the others argue, “I Didn't Mean To Startle You.”

You don’t relax, even when he lifts his hand off of your person. He looks sort of what you might have looked like as a boy before…..

You frown heavily, then watch as two more skeletons appear in the basement. One is tall with an orange hoodie, the other is the one with the pink slippers. They join in trying to calm down the spiky skeletons.

“IT ATTACKED CLASSIC! AND WHILE I DON'T CARE MUCH FOR HIS WELL BEING, IF IT ATTACKED HIM, IT MIGHT ATTACK THE REST OF US!” Yelles the extra spiky tall one. You opt to call him Savagery and the shorter loud spiky one Enmity out of spite. You also mentally name the tall one you knocked over earlier as Needle.

Needle is leaning against a table, a sucker between his teeth. His golden tooth glints in the fluorescent lights, and his eyelights are on you. He looks relaxed, but you can tell by the set of his jaw that he’s just waiting for you to try something. You can’t see much of the other three, being blocked by the skeletons defending you and all, but you can feel the wavering in strength of the magic surrounding your soul as your own magic slowly absorbs it.

The skeleton who’s still kneeling by you catches your attention again.

“My Name Is Blueberry, But Everyone Calls Me Blue. What’s Your Name?” Blue asks.

You turn slightly to look at him again, scanning his face for a reaction as you reply.

“.....P-8.”

His face twists in confusion.

“Um… I Don’t Think That’s A Name…”

You don’t respond.

“FINE! BUT DON'T COME COMPLAINING TO ME IF IT DUSTS US! RED, LET IT UP.” Savagery all but shrieks.

The weight lifts from your soul and you immediately teleport to the far wall where you knocked over Needle and wedge yourself between the wall and an odd looking machine. It’s a tight fit, but they can’t use anything but blue magic to get you out.

“WHERE’D IT GO?!” Enmity asks, and you hear the shifting of clothing along with footsteps as they search for you.

You make sure that your hood is still up and that your hands are covered, but otherwise, you remain motionless. Even if they find you, you don’t plan on leaving this spot until you get some answers. Blue seems nice, and the loud skeleton with the red scarf and white chest plate seems ok, but you honestly don’t know if anyone else would be kind to you.

It’s the tall one in the orange hoodie that finds you. He has a sucker between his teeth, like Needle, and his mouth stretches into a lazy grin as he crouches down in front of your spot.

“not the best time to be playing hide ‘n seek kiddo.”

You simply stare at him from the shadows of your hoodie.

“not much of a talker, hu? the name’s Stretch by the way-”

“Where am I?” You ask softly, but with enough force to make you sound angry.

“we can tell you if you come out-”

“No, not until I get some answers.”

You tense as another skeleton peaks into your hiding spot. It’s the one in pink slippers. He looks you over, and you feel the spine crawling wave of JUDGMENT wash over your being. You scowl at him, but say nothing.

“they won’t come out. said they wanted answers.” Stretch informs him, shifting his gaze from you to the smaller skeleton.

“that’s fair.” Slippers admits, turning their attention back to you “what's your name, kiddo?”

“..... P-8…”

The two blink at you. You tense as a shadow casts itself over you.

“OH! THERE YOU ARE. HELLO, SMALL SKELETON!”

You look up to see the one with the white chest plate. It helps you relax a little, but you stay on guard.

“DID YOU FINALLY FIND IT?” Growls Savagery from somewhere close by.

“YES! BUT YOU AND BLACK ARE NOT ALLOWED NEAR THEM!”

There’s a snarl, and two sets of boots stomp their way up the basement steps, followed by a lighter pair of steps that follow.

“ARE THEY ALRIGHT? THEY AREN'T HURT, ARE THEY STRETCH?” Blue asks worriedly, his own little boots clacking closer to your spot.

“nope, just a little nervous bro.” Stretch looking you over.

“well kiddo,” starts Slippers, “welcome to the alpha timeline. or AT for short.”

He then explains that the machine you're hiding behind tore you from your timeline and brought you here to this one. He tells you that monsters have been on the surface for years now, and the resets have stopped.

_ ‘Which is both a curse and a blessing.’ _ You think to yourself.

“-and until we have the machine completely fixed, you're unable to go back.”

You blink at those words, “Ok, sounds like it’ll take a while.”

Slippers and Stretch give you an odd look.

“um… so you want to help us fix it…?”

You bark out a laugh. Angel, that’s the funniest thing you’ve heard in years! Then you catch the look on their faces. The one with the white chest plate looks concerned, but Stretch and Slippers look seriously confused.

“Oh, you're not kidding…” you frown. You don’t want to go back, but you feel like it would be a bad thing to say out loud.

“so you won’t help.” Stretch rolls the sucker between his teeth.

“I wouldn’t be much help.” You admit, “Machines were not my thing.”

“WHAT IS “YOUR THING”?” White chestplate asks.

“Chemicals.” You lean your head against the wall, “But I don’t touch them anymore.”

“any reason why?” Stretch asked, sitting down instead of crouching.

“Didn’t have the resources, and I didn’t really want to anyway.”

The two nodded in understanding.

“So, where exactly are we?”

“a place where you’ll be safe.”

“Ah, so you're not going to tell me.”

“WE’RE AT THE BASE OF MOUNT EBOTT IN THE FOREST.” Blue calls out helpfully.

“Hmm. Ok, how close is the nearest town?”

“to far to teleport.” Slippers interrupts White Chestplate before he can answer, shooting him a look.

“No need to lie, Slippers. I know you don’t trust me to leave yet.” You shrug nonchalantly, “It’s not like I’ll try and run away. I’m just making sure I won’t have to bump into any humans if I go outside.”

“Slippers?” Stretch asked, trying to hold back a laugh.

“Yeah, I don’t know his name, or his name.” You point at Slippers and White Chestplate.

“the name’s Sans.” Grins Slippers, now called Sans.

“I'M THE GREAT PAPYRUS!” White Chestplate announces.

“Nice to meet you, Sans and Papyrus.” You nod up at the taller one.

“do you have-,” Stretch covers up a laugh with a cough, “names for the other ones?”

Sans’ smile becomes mischievous.

“Yeah. Tall, dark, and spiky is Savagery. Short, dark, and spiky is Enmity. And the tall one in the hoodie is Needle. I heard Red’s name, so I didn’t give him one.”

Sans and Stretch look at each other before bursting out laughing. You hear Papyrus and maybe Blue snicker for a moment before they regain their composure.

“IT'S NOT FUNNY TO LAUGH AT THEM!” Scolds Blue.

“SAVAGERY IS EDGE, ENMITY IS BLACK, AND NEEDLE IS MUTT.” Papyrus explains helpfully.

“though the kid’s names would fit just fine.” Sans muses as he wipes away ecto tears of laughter.

You smile a little. You feel safer with these 4. If you're going to be sticking around for a while, you feel like hanging out with them would be a good choice. Maybe if you get close enough, Sans will let you stay here.

“I CAN'T HELP BUT NOTICE THAT YOUR SIBLING SEEMS TO HAVE DISAPPEARED.” Papyrus’s points out.

Your mood drops, and the other seem to sense it, if the looks on their faces are any indication.

“They didn’t come with…I don’t want to talk about it…” You rub at your left arm, not meeting anyone’s gaze.

“that’s ok kid, we aren’t gonna make yah.” Sans assures.

You nod a little. Papyrus looks a little uncomfortable, but then brightens up.

“ARE YOU HUNGRY? IT'S PROBABLY CLOSE TO LUNCHTIME.”

You smile a little. He’s so much like her….

“Sure.”


	3. Lunch...?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You eat something that almost passes for food and get pissed off at two of your attackers. You also get a room, which helps to make up for the crap you’ve put up with today.

Lunch, to say the least was awkward. The four who attacked you kept glaring you down from across the table as you picked at your… Spaghetti Tacos? It was hard to tell what they were, really. Some of the meat was burnt, while the rest was undercooked. The tomato sauce was too chunky, and the cheese that had been added wasn’t all that melted. The lettuce was warm, which was kinda gross, and your pretty sure that a little bit of glitter was added at some point. The taco shells the mess had been slopped in were soggy towards the bottom, and moist from the wetness up. You were thankful that your hood was up, otherwise the face of horror you made when they were first carried out by Blue and Papyrus would have hurt someone’s feelings.

You ate it though, increasing the level of magic in your mouth to the point where you couldn’t taste anything more then the salty shell and the blood from the meat. Edge was glaring you down across the table in disgust, so you asked for another plate just to spite him.

“REALLY?!” Papyrus beamed and stars appeared in place of Blue’s eyelights.

You nodded, “Haven’t eaten in days in my timeline. Been too busy helping other monsters move around.”

Blue made you another, and you glared Edge down from the shadow of your hood and ate every. last. bite.

“so P-8, what was your timeline like?” Stretch asked, his plate empty and an impressed look on his skull.

“Well, we were trapped underground, then the kid let us stay on the surface after they got bored of the resets. Something bad happened, and some info got out in the wrong way, and so the humans started a second war with monster kind. I was a sort of “Underground Railroad” for monsters, as it were. And now I’m here.”

“WAIT, A WAR?” Black asks unbelievingly in that ‘holier than thou’ tone “I DOUBT THAT HIGHLY. HUMANS MAY HAVE CREATED LAWS FOR US THAT WERE UNFAIR AND WE FOLLOW THEM FOR THE SAKE OF THE COWARD OF A KING IN THIS UNIVERSE, BUT HUMANS HAVE NO MAGIC. THEY WOULD NEVER BE ABLE TO BEAT US IN COMBAT FOR LONG WITHOUT THE RESETS!”

You look down at your left hand, which you left in your lap and is still covered by your sleeve, “Believe me or not, war came. The monster populace is dwindling in the triple digits now. It was in the thousands when we first came out.”

“THAT MAY HAVE SOMETHING TO DO WITH THE WEAKNESS OF YOUR UNIVERSE.” Edge points out smugly, though his face remains in that baleful glare.

You stand up so quickly your chair crashes into the wood floor. Your hands slam both hands into the table, the blow sounding almost like stones instead of bone even when encased by your sweatshirt sleeves.

All noise, even from outside stops. The room seems to hold it’s breath as you glare down the monster on the other end of the table. You can feel the more violent alters tense up for a fight that you won’t start. Not today anyway.

“.... Thank you for the meal; Blue, Papyrus.” You don’t turn to them as you continue to glare Edge down, “I’d like a tour of the house now.”

Blue, who’s been watching with wide sockets and shrunken eyelights, stands slowly from his place as Papyrus takes everyone’s empty plates to the kitchen.

“Um… This Way…” he says quietly, motioning for you to follow, which you do.

He leads you to the living room.

“This Is Where You Can Usually Find Sans Or Red When Their Not Working-“

“Blue, I’m not going to be angry now that I’m away from Edge.” You tell him gently.

Blue refuses to look directly at you, “.... That Was Really Scary… I Don’t Think I’ve Ever Seen Anyone That Mad…”

“Edge had no right to talk that way about monsters who gave their lives.” You explain, “I just wanted to make a point that I won’t tolerate it. If it bothers you that much, I won’t do it again.”

He finally looks up to meet your eyes. His baby blue eyelights scan the shadows of your hood as if he’s trying to gage your true feelings, so you brighten your eyelights from beneath the hood just enough that he can see the calm and gentle glow.

“You Won’t Do It Again?” He asks with a little more confidence.

You nod, letting your eyelights go back to normal, “Of course Blue. Why don’t you show me your favorite part of the house?”

His eyelights turn to stars, “OF COURSE P-8! WHAT A WONDERFUL IDEA!”

He grabs your right hand, which your a little uncomfortable with, and attempts to drag you through the house. He’s stopped however by Stretch, who steps into his path. He’s got this cautious look in his eye, and you understand his need to stick close to his brother. You wouldn’t trust just anyone around D-10 either….

“mind if I join you, bro? Sans told me where she’ll be staying.”

“OH, SURE! WE’RE GOING TO THE TRAINING COURSE FIRST THOUGH.”

“sounds like a plan.”

And with that, he steps aside and follows the two of you outside. The house, it seems, is actually a large mansion in the middle of the woods. It looks like a cabin, with the base made of heavy rock, and the rest made of logs that fit together like a cabin.

Blue pulls you around the side of the mansion and then stops, almost so fast that you don’t have time to catch your balance.

“THIS IS THE TRAINING COURSE! PAPYRUS, BLACK, EDGE, AND I ALL GO THROUGH IT EVERY MORNING! IT'S SET TO SWITCH THINGS UP A BIT AT RANDOM SO WE NEVER GET TOO COMPLACENT.”

The whole thing looks rather complicated and dangerous. It also looks interchangeable, like the different challenges can be moved around. You get the feeling that it’s well used already.

“Cool. Sounds pretty interesting.”

Blue nods excitedly, “WILL YOU BE JOINING US, MISS?”

You look the whole thing over again, contemplating the difficulty, “Sure.”

“wait, really? you're the Papyrus in your world?” Stretch asks, “I took you for a Sans…”

“I suppose that in my universe, I would be a “Sans”. But I can enjoy a little physical exercise every now and again.”

“REALLY?! I’LL HAVE TO TELL PAPYRUS!” Blue beams at you, and you smile back.

He grabs your hand again and pulls you back inside, introducing you to the different rooms on each floor. The basement is the lab, where Stretch, Red, Sans, and Mutt work on the machine to send everyone back. It’s recommended that everyone who isn’t working on the machine stays out of the basement, so Blue doesn’t actually go down there. 

The first floor has the living room, two bathrooms, and the dining room, which is attached to the kitchen via a door. The second floor has a library which isn’t really impressive, but it’s cozy. A game room with a pool table, a singular arcade game, and lots of bored games. There’s another bathroom, and four bedrooms for guests. The third floor is dedicated to bedrooms. Stretch, Blue, Sans, and Papyrus each have a room on this floor, and besides the few rooms (Blue and Papyrus’) that have bathrooms, there’s only one shower on this floor. The next floor, which Blue skips, is for Black, Mutt, Edge, and Red. You don’t get to see much more than a hall with a bunch of closed doors from the winding staircase as you move to the fifth floor.

This floor has been mostly used for storage, but there’s one room that Blue points out to you that has a glass covered balcony that reminds you very much of a greenhouse.

“sans says you can have this one. figured you’d need more privacy, being the only girl and all.” Stretch informs.

“OOOH! YOU GET THIS ROOM? THAT'S SO COOL! I WANTED THIS ONE, BUT MOST OF THE OTHER ROOMS WERENT SUITED FOR A BEDROOM AND PAPY WANTED TO SLEEP IN THE ROOM NEXT TO ME.” Blue turns to pout up at Stretch, who shrugs.

“that was back when we all first came here.”

“Well, now you have an excuse to come up here, Blue.” You smile, turning to him.

“REALLY?!” Blue starts vibrating in excitement.

“Sure, just knock on the door and wait a minute Incase I’m getting dressed.”

A light blue blush settles on Blue’s cheekbones, but you don’t catch it as you turn to Stretch.

“Feel free to do the same. It would be unfair to let just Blue in, after all.”

Stretch looks you over with an appraising gaze, but his lazy grin pulls up a little at the corners.

“sure, kiddo. i’m assuming you don’t want Edge, Mutt, Red, or Black in here though, right?”

You nod immediately, “Preferably, yes. Maybe if they apologize I’ll reconsider, but I don’t think Edge or Black are the type to damage their pride like that…”

Stretch nodded in agreement, “well, me ‘n my bro will leave you to get settled in. feel free to come down when you're ready. sans is thinking about going out shopping for you tomorrow to pick up anything you need. ‘common Blue, lets leave P-8 to get acquainted with the place.”

He turns back towards the stairs, and after a moment of hesitation, Blue follows. You turn back to your room and enter it, shutting the door behind you. The room itself is simple. There’s a full sized bed with grey sheets, a desk, a dresser, and two glass French doors that lead out into the small, gazebo shaped greenhouse. The greenhouse is empty, besides the built in metal shelves and a worn wooden bench that must have belonged to the old owners of the place.

The only true problem you see is the dust, since you’d kicked your messy living habits after your Undyne forced you to care about how things looked to cope with….

…..You don’t want to think about that…

It’s an easy fix, the dust. You’ll have to ask someone for some cleaning supplies, and probably where the washing machine is since the sheets could probably do with a wash as well. You're happy that there’s no dusty comforter that needs to be taken to the dry cleaners. You’ll just have to deal with it tomorrow, though. You're pretty sure that it would be rude to ask for something on the first day, not that dust really bothers you that much.

You spend a few more moments opening drawers and looking to see what else was left behind. You find a blank diary with yellowing pages, which you retrieve from between the wall and the desk, and a broken shard of Mirror, which you quickly rush over to the greenhouse, open one of the windows, which open outwards and upwards for some reason, and toss out the shard. Your soul pounds in your chest as you shut the window, and you put a hand over it in an attempt to sooth it. It’s been years since you looked at your own reflection, and you refuse to have a mirror in your new room. A room that doesn’t hold memories that make you sad, furious, and reminiscent all at once.

You sit on the bed, a thin cloud of dust rising around you. You take a few deep breaths of magic that you don’t need from the air around you. You let your hands light up with blue magic in an attempt to sooth you further, drawing from the constantly overflowing fountain of magic that is your soul. The scent of it fills the room, making everything smell of rain and lilacs. The lilac scent only came out when you weren’t actually fighting. When you were fighting, your magic smelled like a thunderstorm, warning of the coming danger. You’d found out the name of the flower your name smelled like on the first time you left the mountain for good, and it helped calm you. You took a few deep breaths while the scent settled into everything. It was nice to be able to leave everything from your universe behind. 

Eventually, you let the magic fade. The smell stayed, to your delight, and you took one more deep breath before walking over to the door. You had some skeletons to thank, after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter you get to see what P-8 looks like, cause Black is an asshole.


	4. Black messes up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You kick Black’s ass for outing you to everyone.

You make your way back down the stairs to the first floor, feeling a little better the you have since you got here.

You hum an old tune you once heard on a cd that fell into the underground dump as you descend, ignoring the intense gaze of someone on the fourth floor so you don’t lose your good mood. You turn towards the dining room, heading for the kitchen, where you assume at least one of the less violent skeletons to be. A glance at the clock in the dining room tells you that it’s been several hours since the start of your tour, and now it’s 4 o’clock.

The kitchen island is occupied by Stretch and Sans, who stop their hushed conversation as you enter. You don’t ask, because if their reaction to you being there is any indication, it was about you.

“Hey guys, do we know what’s for dinner yet?”

“no. Edge, Black, Papyrus, and Blue all flip a coin before its time to start cooking.” Sans explains.

“Ah, I see. Do you think it would hurt your brothers feelings if I cooked? I can tell they need some… guidance.”

The two look at eachother.

“well, they might be a little reluctant seeing as you’re the guest.” Stretch admits, “but if you swear you're a good cook, I might be tempted to help you get them to agree.”

“Edge and Black with throw a fit though. not many “outsiders” are allowed in the kitchen. They might think you’ll try to poison them.” Sans mentions.

“I don’t really care what Edge and Black think.” You state airily, “And I promise to make it the best home cooked meal you’ve had all week.”

Stretch’s smile tells you he agrees wholeheartedly with your plan, and he disappears from his seat to let the energetic personalities know. Sans chuckles a little, and you skirt around the island to familiarize yourself with where things are in the kitchen. You also take your time to see what you can use in the meal tonight.

You find enough steaks in the freezer for everyone but you to have two (which is ok, because you only want one), some Asiago cheese and lots of asparagus in the fridge, some steak seasoning in one of the cupboards next to the stove, and plenty of dinner rolls in the pantry.

You pull out all of them and set them on the island in front of Sans, who’s laying on the counter, watching you.

“steak? you’ll spoil us, sweetheart.” His lazy grin stretches wider.

“Well, someone has to.” You joke, turning your back to him and completely missing the light blush that appears on his skull.

You grab a scrub brush by the sink and lean over it, pulling back your sleeves to the space between your wrist and elbow, taking care to hide your left arm with your body as you turn on the water with your right. You stare down at the jagged mess on your left hand for a moment or two before grabbing the soap with your right hand and squirting some on your left. You use the scrub brush to clean your left hand, getting as much as you can as clean as you can. Then you rinse it off under the water and do the same for your right hand, which takes less time.

You rinse it off and pull your sleeves back down till they cover everything but your distals. Back at the island, Sans is resting with his sockets closed. Not sleeping, since he’s probably still here to keep an eye on you, and you can tell by his breathing that he’s awake. You grab the steak with a small smile.

“Steaks are always better on the grill, but the George Foreman works.” You tell him conversationally as you turn to the mini indoor grill that you had set on the counter earlier. You put the steaks next to it and turn it on.

“we don’t have one of those.” Sans opens an eyesocket, “but we can get one, if you need it.”

“Only if you want steaks better than this.”

As you pour seasonings on the first two steaks, you slowly ease magic into them. Any monster who cooks adds magic as they go, but Papyrus and Blue seem unaware that the overflow of passion and the touch of violence are what make their dishes come out poorly. You're currently feeling calm and happy, so the steak you just put on the Foreman should come out nicely cooked with just enough pink in the middle to make it tender.

You spend the next hour and a half making steaks and adding them to a serving plate. You also clean and sauté the asparagus in a skillet before putting some on another serving plate and covering it with the cheese. You put the dinner rolls in the oven to heat up, and put the rest of the asparagus on top of the now slightly melty cheese, and cover the whole thing with more cheese so no one will get a piece without the gooey goodness.

You look over your shoulder at Sans, who’s once again resting.

“Could you get everyone? I’m going to set the table and put all the food out.”

He blinks up at you for a moment before that lazy grin of his appears and he teleports away. You shake your head and put your attention back on the Foreman, which is cooking the last steak.

“THEIR LETTING IT  _ COOK _ NOW?” Black’s voice booms into the room from the entryway.

“It’s steaks and asparagus. And I’m a girl, not an it.” You tell him, trying to keep yourself calm.

“DID YOU EVEN WASH YOUR HANDS, YOU FILTHY WRETCH?” He sneers as he stalks over to inspect your work.

“Yes, I did.” You tell him as you pull out the warm dinner rolls. You open a cupboard and take out 9 plates. You set them on the counter and retrieve the forks and steak knives.

“BUT YOU DIDN'T TAKE DOWN THAT HOOD. THE FAKE, CHEAP FUR IS PROBABLY ALL OVER THE MEAL!” He chides.

“I highly doubt that, but feel free to not eat what I made.” You tell him as you use blue magic to send everything to the dining room where it sets itself up. You reach for the asparagus.

“TAKE IT DOWN BEFORE YOU RUIN THE FOOD FURTHER!” Black commands.

“No.” You simply state as you move past him with the asparagus.

You step into the dining room to find that everyone but Edge and Mutt are in their spots. You make for the table, setting the first part of dinner down in between Blue and Red.

“YOU WILL DO AS YOUR TOLD!” Black stomps a foot when you enter the kitchen again and grab the pan of dinner rolls.

“Still no, and definitely not with that attitude.”

You carry the rolls into the dining room, and are just setting them down when the room suddenly gets brighter and the light weight on your skull disappears. You feel your soul drop lower in your ribcage, and suddenly everyone is staring at you. You know what they see; a horrible thing with a skull that tells the story of torture.

[Furious](https://www.deviantart.com/xsquirblex/art/Cancer-Magic-837908738), you whirl on Black, summoning two bone attacks that shove him away from you. You're out for dust, and it seems that everyone senses your intentions because they're all on their feet.

You stare down the now fearful expression on Black’s skull and sidestep Blue’s attempt to grab your wrist. You approach the cause of your current anguish with the speed of a judge and grab him by the front of his red bandanna, teleporting to the front yard where you drop him. Never let it be said that you didn’t try to keep from breaking people’s things.

You dodge his first wave of attacks and summon five blasters and a number of bone attacks that you don’t dare to count. He may be a Sans, but it’s his brother that has the teleport ability. Needless to say, he’s trapped, even in the wide open yard. You make no pattern, your fury making you simply attack with the intent to kill rather than maim.

He is able to dodge the blasters, but gets knocked off his feet by several bone attacks. He rolls out of the way just in time to avoid getting squired, and is back on his feet by the next blaster attack.

“HEY! YOUR SUPPOSED TO WAIT YOUR TURN!” Black yelps fearfully as he dodges another blaster attack.

“ **_No, I don’t think I do._ ** ” You snarl, sending in a few spike-covered bones in from each side.

He manages to jump out of the way, but blue attack is waiting for him when he lands, taking down his hp by 8. You perform a check just to see how long it’ll take you to kill him.

Sans (Fellswap)

Hp: 822/830

ATK: 35

DEF: 40

*Is scared for his life for the first time since he became captain of the royal guard. Really wishes he hadn’t touched you.

You scowl as you feel him check you as well while you pause to read his stats. You don’t let him look for long though, and use blue magic to grab his soul and lift him before he can react or retaliate. You hear the sound of someone teleport outside, followed by the front door opening, but there’s no way in all the underground that you're stopping now.

~

Mutt grew up in a world of violence. He was used to seeing monsters dust, or having to dust them himself. But when he can count on one hand the times that he’s ever seen a look of pure anger so intense as the one on P-8’s face when she was in the dining room, and none of those times have the expression ever made his brother look that scared.

He regretted being late to dinner now, as he searched the house for the fighting pair with the other members of the household. He’d walked into the dining room just as she was turning around to shove his brother away, and was too late to stop them from disappearing. He was honestly scared, though he’d never admit it. He’d seen her fight before in the basement, and if she fought like that when she was scared? He didn’t even want to think about how she fought when she was furious.

  
  


“Mutt,” Red poked his head into the hall where he was checking the room and praying that he didn’t find a pile of dust, “their in the front yard.”

He didn’t even take the time to respond before teleporting there. P-8’s skull was covered in spikes of bone that reminded Mutt very much of the stalactites he’d seen in the underground, some had even formed in her left eye socket, which probably forced it to stay open constantly. Her left hand also had the spikes, but some were larger and made him feel bad for any poor guy who got backhanded by her. It made sense now, why she wore long black pants with the signature white stripe down the side instead of shorts, and why she kept her hood up and hands covered all the time. It made total sense why she would be angry at his brother for revealing her at dinner like that, but that didn’t mean that he was just going to stand there as she lifted his brother in the air and beat him over and over again against the ground.

He teleported behind her, but the noise caught her attention. A bone wall sprung up behind her, stopping him from grabbing her like he’d planned. He heard the others come down off the porch to help, but she’d already teleported high in the air on top of one of her blasters, which were circling Black as they charged up for another blast. Mutt teleported up beside her summoning a blaster of his own. He then noticed something that made his magic run cold. She wasn’t sweating. With the amount of magic she was exerting with all the attacks she was summoning, any of them would have been, but she wasn’t. Something was either seriously wrong with her, or she had reserves of magic beyond any of their own, and he hoped to the Angel that it wasn’t the second option.

He made a grab for her, but she teleported again to another dragon skull, shooting the blasters all at once before teleporting back to the ground and letting his brother fall. Mutt drove the blaster lower, catching his brother just before he hit the ground.

“M-Milord?” He questioned, watching as his brother coughed and sat up in his arms.

“I’m Fine.” His brother replied, wincing as blue magic suddenly enveloped his soul and ripped him from his arms.

Mutt watched as P-8 pinned him to the ground with her magic across the yard, ignoring as Sans, Red, and Stretch appeared a few feet behind her and everyone else who couldn’t teleport ran to get the two apart. Before anyone could do anything, she dropped to her knees over Black and grabbed his arm. And for the first time in Mutt’s life, Black screamed.

~

You stared down at the human below you, your face blank as they writhed in agony under your touch. You had this effect since your incident that allowed you to do to others what the human Soldiers had done to you and your sister. It forced their body to absorb more matter in an attempt to combat the onslaught of magic you were pumping into them. This process was painful, and always left what you called the “Stalagmite effect”, where the victim would become more full of magic then what was usual and attract enough material to make them as dense as stone. The final stage of the process would make the excess matter take the form of little spikes that would grow in time until it basically turned the victim to something like stone and killed them. It took a while, usually, and unfortunately the effects didn’t stay for more than a minute if you didn’t hold onto the enemy till they died, but it was handy if done correctly.

You felt hands on your arms that tried to pry you off of the human. You turned and found Undyne staring down at you, her gaze pleading.

_ “You don’t have to be like this. Don’t stoop to their level!” _

You shook your head, “Sorry ‘Dyne. They killed her, and ruined me forever. They need to pay.”

More hands appeared, which didn’t make sense, since no one else was in the field but Undyne, you, and the soon to be corpse. They pulled your arms away from the human, who immediately started to go back to normal as the matter turned to a grey sludge that slowly seeped out of their pours.

“ **_No!_ ** I need to end this! It’s the last one who was there that night,  **_please_ ** Undyne!” You sobbed as you were pulled against something warm and solid.

“ **_Please! Let me avenge her! Let me put her to rest!_ ** ”

But she didn’t listen this time.

~

Papyrus and Blue didn’t really know what was going on. One moment, P-8 was grabbing Black’s arm and making him scream as he started to get those little bone spikes all over him that she had, and the next she was begging Undyne, who wasn’t there, to let her avenge someone as they pried her off. They both looked at each other in worry as Papyrus held her close. She struggled for a moment before going limp and sobbing heavily into his Chestplate, blue tears streaking her cheekbones. Black was recovering surprisingly quickly from the spikes, they all turned to sludge and dripped off of him into the grass. He was shaking, but his brother was there to heal his damaged hp (98/830), so there wasn’t much to do for him.

“I Think She’s Dissociating.” A soft, scratchy voice spoke up from behind them. Edge stood there, his arms crossed, and his usual scowl swapped for a look of respect. “Red Does It Sometimes.” He approached and squatted down in front of them.

“Tell Me Five Things You Can See.” He instructed her calmly.

She blinked her one, closable eyesocket, “I s-see you Undyne, the weeds, the  **_human_ ** …”

“Try Again.” Edge stated patiently. It was silent for a while as she concentrated harder.

“.... The grass…….. Edge….. Blue…. Trees…….”

“One More.” He encouraged.

She looked up at Papyrus, who smiled sadly, “Papyrus….”

“Three Things You Can Touch.” 

“Chestplate….. Hoodie…. grass…”

“One Thing You Can Smell.”

She inhaled slowly, “A thunderstorm…. no, my magic…”

All three seemed to pause and sniff the air. She was right, it did smell of a thunderstorm, but the smell got stronger the closer they were to her, so it was definitely her magic.

“Better?” Asked Edge.

She nodded, snuggling further into Papyrus, who held her closer. Her good eye socket closed and she sighed heavily.

“We Need To Put Her To Bed.” Blue muttered, running a gentle hand over the side of her skull that didn’t have the spikey shards.

“Agreed.” Papyrus announced standing to his feet and moving back towards the house with Edge and Blue in tow. The others could wait till morning to get the answers they wanted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you can’t get the link to work, here: https://www.deviantart.com/xsquirblex/art/Cancer-Magic-837908738
> 
> Also, for those of you who don’t know, the time in the field that was mentioned actually happened for P-8. She killed the last human who broke into her house and murdered her sister. Her sister was actually killed right where the Skeletons live now, since there was a little cabin there in her dimension.
> 
> Also, fanart!:
> 
> By Uniixxari: https://www.deviantart.com/uniixxari/journal/P-8-838033007
> 
> If you (the reader) decide to make fanart for this story, I will love you forever and put it in the chapter that corresponds to the art, or the chapter that I was making while the art was sent to me.


	5. The Not-Cancer Cancer.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is the chapter where we learn more about “Monster Cancer”.  
> Enjoy!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was written in-between homework and meowing at my cat from across my living quarters. Please, for the love of everything I hold dear, let me know if I made a mistake since sleep has decided to play a game of hide and seek with me and I’m exhausted.

It had been established towards the beginning of the alter’s appearance in the timeline that Sans and Papyrus were the most powerful of them all. There was speculation that it was because they were the original two in the timeline that everyone was stuck in, or if it was because they were simply from the Alpha Timeline. Either way, the two could overpower any of the others in a one on one battle with their sheer potency of magic, so to have someone from another timeline with enough power that might be able to outlast them was a little worrying.

Sure, if two of the more LOVE filled skeleton brothers worked together against one of the originals, they had a chance. But to have one, singular skeleton who was able to do what P-8 did? It made everyone a little on edge.

Sans had watched the three move the unconscious skeleton inside before looking down at Black. The smaller version of him had his sockets squeezed shut as the spikes that had started growing turned to a grey sludge that slowly dripped off his bones and made small puddles beneath him. His breathing was shallow, and he clung to his brother, who hovered over him as if he were about to dust. Mutt looked frazzled. His eyelights were small with fear as he used green magic to heal his older brother slowly (270/830).

“well, I sure as hell am glad that it wasn’t me who pissed her off.” Red grumbled from where he stood watching a few feet away, “she’d ‘v dusted my ass.”

“shut it Red.” Stretch warned, appearing again with a handful of monster candy.

“did you see what she did to him? she was going to send his ass to the Angel!” He tugged nervously at the d ring on his collar, sweat the color of his namesake dotting his skull, “I’d be surprised if the egomaniac ever has the balls to talk back to her again.”

Stretch sighed and unwrapped a peice, picking up a near unresponsive Mutt’s hand and placing the healing item in his palm, which was then gently coaxed in between Black’s fangs (620/830).

“if she’s anything like us, she’ll have calmed down by the time she wakes again.” Sans attempted to convince. He didn’t really know if he was trying to convince them or himself though, since the truth was that P-8 had proven to be pretty different then any of them. 

She seemed to hide more then just her visage before they removed her hood, and Sans was still thinking about what she’d said during her episode.

_“Please! Let me avenge her!”_

He could guess that the “her” was the missing sister, but that led to the question of what happened to her Papyrus. Did she die in the war she’d mentioned? And if so, what was so traumatic to someone who’d seen their sibling die over and over in the resets that they felt the need to avenge their dusted sibling? Sans had a feeling that it had something to do with the spikes on her bones, but the only person who could tell him the answers to his questions was unconscious, and would probably be unwilling to talk to him about it until he earned her trust.

_‘that’s ok,’_ he thought, _‘there’s plenty of time between now and when the machine’s fixed. and I need to get to know her anyway so I can stop any future fighting before it happens. it’s all gonna work out.’_

Sans repeated the last few words like a mantra as Black’s health points reached full, but he knew it was going to be a lot harder than it sounded.

~

It's rather bright out when you're finally conscious again. Birds are chirping outside, their calls filtering in through the upturned windows in the greenhouse just outside your new room. It’s peaceful to say the least, though you can’t remember how you got here.

‘ _Probably one of the boys..’_ you think groggily, hissing a little at the pulsing that spreads along the left side of your skull.

The pain reminds you of last night. You slowly turn off of your aching shards of bone to lay on your right side, facing the greenhouse. Using that much magic all at once usually causes new shards to appear, or old ones to grow in size, and now you’re extremely sensitive all along the left side of your body. You close your good socket again, wincing slightly when your other socket tries to twitch closed as well, only to be quickly stopped by the sharp spikes that line the edges of the deep crevice. You settle for simply shutting off the vision in that eye, causing the eyelight to dissipate.

You doze for the next few moments, simply going through all the events that happened to you yesterday.

Waking up in a new dimension.

Attacking people in said dimension.

Getting a new room.

Making dinner for your new housemates… crap, you burned that last steak, didn’t you?

Attacking a Tirant for pulling off your hood.

Dissociating towards the end of the fight.

Edge bringing you back to reality.

Passing out in Papyrus’ arms…

_‘Wait, hold on just a minute…’_ You open your socket and squint at the wall, _‘that doesn't add up. Edge hates me, why would he help to calm me down?’_

You ponder over this new information for a while, slipping in and out of consciousness for an indeterminate amount of time. You don’t move when you hear someone teleport into the room somewhere behind you, but you do listen as whoever it is moves closer to your bedside.

“Iss bright….” You tell him, your words a little jumbled from sleep, “Gonna need curtains….”

You hear him pause in his stride at the sound of your voice for a moment, then he rounds the bed to enter your field of vision. Sans looks tired, and he winces slightly at the sight of your skull, but his smile is still somewhat relaxed if not a little pinched, and it’s a comfort knowing that he isn’t completely disgusted with you.

“hey sleeping beauty. did you have a nice rest?”

You nod a little, “I didn’t dust him, did I?”

Sans looks at you for a moment before shaking his head. You don’t really know how to feel about that. You feel disappointed that he will still be around to torment you, but glad that any dust wasn’t added to the blood on your hands. There are other feelings, but a wave of pain erases the words for the emotions out of your skull.

“Good. I don’t want anything to do with more LV.” You shudder at the thought.

“yeah, and his brother might have dusted you for it. or at least attempted to.”

You can hear the question about your magic level in his voice, but chose to ignore it.

“No one else got hurt?”

“no, everyone else is fine. Paps, Blue, and Stretch are worried about you. Edge is too, though he wouldn’t admit it to save his pride.”

You both chuckle before a slightly awkward silence settles over the room. You take the moment to look Sans over. He looks exhausted. There are dark circles beneath his eye sockets and his perma-grin doesn’t seem as natural as when you were cooking dinner. He looks like you did before your…. accident. You lift your right arm from beneath the covers and pull the hood up again subconsciously, attempting to hide in the shadow of your hood once more.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”

Sans blinks as if snapped out of a trance, his eyelights more focused, “oh, no your fine. it's not that.”

“What else could it be?”

He shrugs, “ i’ve just got a lot on my mind is all. the machine needs fixing, i haven’t gotten much sleep, and i’m trying to remember what I came up here for…”

You smile a little, “If you’ve forgotten, it must not have been important.”

Sans chuckles, his smile more genuine, “nah, it was somethin’ important…… oh!” He snaps his distals, “Paps and Blue wanted me to see if you were awake, but if you were I was supposed to ask if you wanted something to eat. it’s almost lunch time.”

“I…. I don’t have the strength to get up, unfortunately.” You inform him, “Otherwise I would. It can take a while to get my magic up to a level where I can stand, so I’ll be here till then.”

You opt to leave out the part where you're in a constant state of pain. You don’t need him to blame himself, he seems like someone who would do that. You got enough of that back in your own universe from different monsters around you about things that were out of their control.

“that’s fine. they’ll be disappointed that they won’t see you, but I’m sure they’ll understand.”

You frown at that, “They don’t have to stay away. The only monster I can’t stand seeing right now is Black and maybe Mutt, depending on his attitude. Everyone else is welcome to come visit.”

“so Edge and Red can come too?”

“Sure,” you pause, “I think…. I think Edge helped me… I was having a really bad episode…”

Sans’ face twisted in discomfort as he shoved his hands in his sweatshirt pocket, “yeah, I saw that. sounded really bad from where I was standing. I take it your good friends with your Undyne?”

You nod as much as you can, but don’t elaborate. You're not ready to talk about it yet. And Sans seems to respect that as he rocks back on his heels and smiles.

“well, I’m gonna go tell them you're awake.” His expression turns slightly bashful, “I know they're um…. concoctions aren’t the best, so I can always tell them that you're not feeling up to eating right now and bring you Grillby’s.”

You smile at his offer, “Sure sans, that would be wonderful.”

He gives you a cheeky mock salute and teleports away. You get about 10 minutes of just listening to the birds when two sets of loud footsteps come barreling upstairs and make a beeline for your door. A soft, but swift knock reminds you briefly of a woodpecker, but you shake off the random thought.

“Come in.”

The door practically bursts open, and a blur of blue and orange enter your field of vision. Words came pouring out of both of them at the same time, and their combined volume was overwhelming.

“G-Guys, one at a time and inside voices please....”

They had silenced themselves immediately when you started talking, and now looked at each other in silent conversation before turning their attention back to you.

“We Wanted To Know If You Were Ok.” Papyrus spoke softly.

You could either bluff and tell them that you were fine, or you could tell them about your current painful predicament. They each seemed to be watching you with intelligent gazes, and you knew they would know if you lied. However if they were anything like your sister, as kind as she was, you knew they would also not call you out on the lie. They would pretend to accept it as fact and then worry about it in silence.

One of the main regrets you had with your sister was not telling her the truth. And while you’d never get her back, you could change now and hopefully make up for it all. So, you decide to tell them the truth.

“Actually, I’m in a lot of pain right now. I don’t exactly have a limit on how much magic I can use, but pulling excess magic from around me forces my body to take on more matter. Essentially, I can keep attacking until I take on too much dust and die.”

Their expressions had started out as surprised, like they didn't expect you to answer. But by the time you got done talking, Papyrus had his hands over his mouth with orange tears in his eyes, and Blue’s eyelights were gone while his sockets were scrunched up in empathic pain.

“.....Why Would You Do That To Yourself…?” Blue asked quietly, his fists clenched at his sides.

“I don’t do it often.” You try to assure them, “I was just really angry at Black and scared that you guys would be disgusted with me, or treat me like I was something fragile.”

Papyrus removed his hands and held them out in what looked to be a placating motion.

“CAN-... Can I Heal You…?”

You smile at him sadly, “Have either of you ever heard of cancer?”

Both shook their heads and Papyrus dropped his hands, sensing the oncoming explanation. You were thankful that you’d read those books on human illness back in the underground out of sheer boredom.

“Cancer is a disease that humans get. Sometimes they are born with it, others they get it from exposure to harmful elements. The disease is a rapid growth of cells that makes painful patches, which spread and grow if left untreated. It will take over the patient’s body, destroying vital parts as it goes.”

Both Blue and Papyrus looked a little sick at this point.

“Do You Have Cancer…?” Papyrus asked nervously.

“Well, I’m not human, so I don’t have the cells that could cause actual cancer. However, an intake of extra material can cause similar symptoms.” You lift your damaged hand from beneath the covers to show them, and Blue takes it gently to examine it, “My bones are heavier than the average skeleton due to the unneeded matter. The spikes are also a similar manifestation, but they're more so caused by my soul trying to dispel the dust as well as it can. Going back to the question you asked earlier, no, you can’t really heal me. At least, not in a way that would get rid of the pain.”

“That’s… Thats A Lot To Take In…” Papyrus muttered, taking your hand from Blue carefully, as if you were made of glass.

“I suppose. The pain will go away in a while, but I’ll need to get lots of rest in the meantime.”

“Is There Any Way To Fix You?” Blue asked, wringing his hands.

“No, I’ve tried everything that was available.” You pull down the sleeve on your right arm, pointing to a rough patch on your radius near where it meets your humerus that’s void of spikes, “Even tried to remove a few with a file, but that just made my HP drop.”

“OH NO!” Blue exclaimed.

“You Shouldn’t Hurt Yourself!” Papyrus admonished.

“I was desperate and angry.” You explain quietly, pulling your hand out of Papyrus’ grasp and covering the bones with your sleeve once more, “I know it was stupid now, but back then it seemed like the best option. Till Undyne showed up, anyway. And besides, I haven’t done it since.”

They relaxed, but still looked to be nervous for you. It took you a moment, but you came up with a change of topic pretty quickly.

“Hey, why don’t you two go get lunch for the three of us, and we can all eat up here? Then you can both tell me what I missed while I was out.”

Blue’s eyelights grew in size as his permagrin stretched into a real smile.

“RACE YOU TO THE KITCHEN!” He cheered at Papyrus, who seemed to break out of some sort of deep thought at the sudden loud voice.

“HEY! NO FAIR!” He called back, following his brother’s counterpart into the hallway.

You smiled reverently at the sounds of their footsteps as they faded away. You knew what you told them would get around to the rest of the house. They didn’t seem like the best secret keepers, but that was ok. You felt a comforting warmth in your soul, telling you that you’d done the right thing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More fanart! Go give the artist some love!
> 
> Tawnypup- https://tawnything.tumblr.com/post/616363639289626624/show-chapter-archive


	6. A/N: “my life thus far”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The reason why I haven’t been updating.

So, here’s the thing. I’ve been pretty unstable since my father (who’s mentally abused me for 8 years) tried to drag me upstairs to check on my school stuff for 4th quarter in school and I refused because I wasn’t going to do anything for him while he was as angry as he was. He left Mental scarring from when he slammed me into the floor multiple times, tried to stop me from screaming by covering my mouth while my nose was clogged from all the crying which stopped me from breathing, and took off my shirt as he tried to drag my by it. He left some bruises on my arms, and a few tiny scratches since I fought back. Don’t worry too much, I’m going to see a therapist about it, and since my parents are divorced, I’m living with my mom. School has been hard since I don’t focus well, so I’ve been cramming all my work in last second so I haven’t been writing for this story much. But school is over now, so we don’t have to worry about that anymore.

Now I’ve gotten that bit of information out of the way, let me tell you the real reason I’m writing this:

I have a tumor.

It’s not cancerous, and I’m not really in any pain right now, even though it makes it look like I’m pregnant, so that’s the good news. The bad news is that it grew off of one of my ovaries (I forget which one, but I get to keep the other), so I have to get that removed along with the tumor. I’m meeting the Doctor who’s going to remove it on Tuesday June 2nd (2020 for those of you who are reading this in the future), along with meeting my anesthesiologist. Friday June 5th is the date of my surgery, and I’ll probably spend two days afterwards in the hospital. It’ll take about 1 or 2 months to recover, so since I’ll either be in bed or on the couch, expect more chapters!

Mind you, this is not a guilt trip, or a beg for sympathies. I don’t expect you to send me messages (though I’ll always answer them because otherwise I feel like a bad person), or all to band together, find out which hospital I’m in, and storm the hospital I’m in to comfort me (please don’t do that, stay home and out of the virus for everyone’s sake). Instead, this is my excuse as to why I’m not writing, and won’t be until I’m able to. The only thing I want from you guys is patience, understanding, and some more time for the next chapter.  
  
I hope your all doing well in this time of quarantine, and I wish you better luck then I’ve had.

~Ended


	7. A/N 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> My hospital trip.

I live!

Anyway, let me tell ya’ll about my trip. I went to Mayo Hospital for my surgery, and I had the head of the department as the lead doctor on my case. My first trip to the operating room had me lose 22 pounds worth of tumor, and one ovary. It was all fine and dandy until the nurses realized that the pain meds weren’t doing didilly squat, and the fluids they were pumping into me weren’t raising my red blood cell count. My lips were the color of the rest of my skin, and my skin was the color of my sheets. I was taken back in and opened up again only to find that I’d been bleeding internally. They stoped the leak, cleaned up the extra blood, and glued me back together again. This all happened in the corse of a day, and so by the time they got me back in bed, it was night and I was exhausted.

They checked in on me every hour or so, taking blood and making sure I was comfortable. By Saturday afternoon I was up and moving (albeit painfully) and allowed to go home. Sunday was my day of soreness, and so I’m hoping that today (Monday June 6th 2020 for those of you reading this in the further) will be better and less exhausting.

Anyway, I’m ok, and you will all probably be receiving another chapter soon.


End file.
